Thanks for your reply. I expect that dedicated pen users would find these features important. I am afraid that I am not of this group. I used three different Galaxy Note phones and never used these features. I would say to people deciding between the alpha and the full pen support Flex, if you only use the pen for drawing, note taking, selecting in photo editors, you might think of saving a few hundred dollars and getting the alpha. I have enjoyed our discussion. Now I am going to start a thread about the fact that the speaker support is terrible.
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What am I missing? It seems that I can do a lot of things with the pen I have. Drawing, selecting, Photoshop selecting and brushes. Bamboo seems to function. What would the s pen do that I can't do now? It would have to be substantially more for me to justify another $400 or $500.
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I don't have a Note any more, I got a Pixel for my last replacement because it was a good deal. I think I will go back to the Note line for my next phone. We have a Samsung Chromebook which has a pen that looks exactly like my note pen. If I try to use it on this flex it does not work. If I work in Bamboo and use my finger, or one of those soft tipped passive "pens" there is no pressure sensitivity. Pressure does not make the line wider. If I use the Pac Doc pen, with the battery but NO BLUETOOTH, I do get pressure sensitivity. Very low pressure produces a very fine line. I certainly don't know if the effect is just the same as I would get with an S Pen device, but it certainly works. The pen works well in Microsoft Word for highlighting, erasing, sketching. In Windows Settings Devices I can set some pen options. Right now, I don't know what functionality I am missing out on by not paying $400 more for a Flex with the pen, but I seem to be able to do everything with a pen that I would expect to be able to do.
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This is kind of a reply to my own question. There seems to be questions about the Flex alpha and pen support. I also saw reviews etc that mentioned S Pen support. My test was to take the S Pen out of my wife's Chromebook and try to use it. NOTHING. I then decided to try the pen that I bought to replace the original pen that came with my Surface Pro 4. What I have is a Surface Pen by Pac Dot that I got on Amazon for about $37. It uses one of those AAAA batteries that you have to dig to find. It has a rocker button on the side but no button on the end like the original pen had. I found that it worked fine with the Surface. When I hold it near the Flex alpha screen a cursor appears. If I hold down the side button and swipe text, it is selected. If I hold down the side button and touch the screen, the right-click menu appears. If I open a Photoshop editor, it can be used for brushes and selections. If I open the Samsung Notes app, the pen works. It has palm rejection. I downloaded the very nice Bamboo Paper app and it works. If I open the Live Message app, the pen works and the pen is pressure sensitive, more pressure gives wider lines. I don't get the semicircle of choices like I got with the S Pen on my Note 10. There are probably other things that this pen cannot do, and i anyone would like to ask me to try something, I will be happy to do it. When I bought the Flex alpha, I did not think it had pen support but certainly expected to try based on the information in some reviews, AND the section on the S Pen that is in the tiny included "User Manual" Much of the pen support is probably coming from Windows 10. There are some simple settings for the pen in Windows Settings Devices. Frankly, considering that I was not planning on pen support, I am very pleased with how useful the pen is and I am glad that I happened to have the active pen from my Surface Pro around so that I found out that it worked. Everything else about the Flex alpha is great, except that the speakers could be louder.
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I just got my Flex alpha 13 with the I 7. The screen is beautiful. Some reviews, and the user manual, seem to suggest that it supports the S Pen. Can anyone tell me if that is true? If F, what pen should I get? Thanks for any answers.
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